Can IoT analytics transform Telecom?

What is IoT Analytics?

IoT Analytics is the application of analytics
tools and procedures on huge volumes of data that are generated by various
devices connected by the internet. Of course, there is a huge potential for IoT
analytics making an impact across various industries.

IoTAnalytics can help organizations collect
data from sensors in remote locations and the field. Think of areas like
pipelines, weather stations, meters, vehicles, and other off-site machines. The
value is to, then, analyze the data and make important business decisions.

IoT data emergesfrom a variety of
heterogeneous streams that are transformed, combined, and, then,made comprehensible
using analytics to give consistent and correct information for business
analysis and reporting.

IoT analytics is being adopted and used in
various industries across different service areas.

IoT Analytics and Telecom

One such industry which can bring about a huge
transformation using IoT analytics is telecom. So far, thetelecom industry has
been focused on making money based on growing the volume of customers. It’s
fair to say that less than necessary focus has been maintained onthe retention
of long-term customers, cost-efficiency, convenience, and customer experience.

With the advent of IoT, this industry could
make a big shift from a revenue generation to a value generation model for
better profits, low maintenance costs, and better quality of service.

The most obvious use-case is in proactive
network maintenance. Network downtime and unavailability impacts not only
customer satisfaction but also reduces revenue opportunities. IoT analytics can
generate insights into network issues even before they occur to enable
proactive maintenance to improve network quality and keep maintenance costslow.
Reliable network services require a quick assessment of developing situations,
rapid decision-making, and timely action.This can be provided by real-time
analytics and automation.

Of course, the scale of the telecom industry
is now much larger than it used to be. There are many areas of this industry that
can be transformed by the use of IoT Analytics.
Let us look at a few ways in whichthe telecom game can be transformed by
IoT analytics.

Telecom use-cases

Predict customer churn and provide value-added
services

Using
predictive analytics the telecom industries can identify customer patterns for
network usage, data usage, physical movements, services being used, etc. Analyzing this data and creating comparative
models of other customer defections will help in identifying customers who are
likely to leave the network.This will enable the service provider to
proactively provide some value-added services to try and retain the customers.

Increase Revenue and Identify the most
profitable services

The
huge amount of customer data that telecom companies have access to can be
analyzed to understand and identify customer behavior and build real business
values. This includes data about other IoT-driven devices the customers use
like wearables and accessories. These volumes of critical data can be used to
develop prediction models to identify which services are the most profitable
and how to leverage and enhance those services based on customer behavior
analysis. This, in turn, will increase the sale of value-added services and
hence increase revenue.

This data can also be leveraged to better
craft custom packages for customers that will maximize usage and drive up
revenues. Predictive models built using analytics help identify which data pack
is most widely used with which call service pack in which region. Sensor data
can help provide data that can be associated with customer information to
create precise “maps” of customer movements and service consumption. This
information can be leveraged to promote various combinations of Data and Call
Service combinations with better chances of success which previously would not
have been possible.

New products and services

IoT solutions are finding application in a
diverse array of fields like healthcare, manufacturing, automotive, and others.
The coming of 5G, especially, is slated to dynamically drive up applications
and ubiquity. As IoT solutions become more commonplace the data the solutions
generate will explode and make IoT Analytics even more necessary. A variety of
use-cases that exploit this synergy look set to emerge as that happens. Remote
Patient Monitoring, Autonomous Vehicles, Smart Manufacturing, Intelligent
Building, and others will all present revenue opportunities for the telecom
companies that can use analytics intelligently.

Planning, Monitoring, and Maintenance of
Telecom

Telecom
companies will benefit from IoT-enabled remote monitoring and maintenance
systems. Remote cell towers can aim for zero network downtime. Many remote
sites exist in harsh environments that are not easily
accessible. Having IoT-enabled access management and intrusion detection systems
will provide a lot of value in this case. Using data analytics models, telecom
companies can study previous system health data and proactively identify any
issues in the remote towers or raise alarms for maintenance. This will help
reduce maintenance costs and also enable zero network downtime.

The application of IoT Analytics isn’t without
challenges though. Data ownership is becoming a fascinating debate that could
draw a precedent for other industries too. The question of whether data belongs
to the customer or the Telecom company is beingdebated fiercely. However,
success in the new world requires a willingness to move beyond contentious
issueslike data ownership and work together to generate the most value out of that
data.
In that light, various
telecom giants have already started tapping into the potential benefits of IoT
Analytics to alter their revenue-generation models, enhance offerings, and
improve the customer experience. It seems likely that as IoT transforms the
world, IoT Analytics will transform the telecom space too.